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How Cool Is That?

The Eliza Broadus Offering is making a difference all over Kentucky as I’ve seen in my travels and from email over the past few days. Last week I was privileged to share in two days of the annual Kentucky Missionaries Retreat. This year it was held at Barren River State Park and was a time of inspiration, encouragement, and learning. Missionaries led the devotions, shared ministry updates, and worshipped together. The ministry stories were a reminder of the impact of our state missionaries and state offering.

During the retreat, we all learned more about personality and style of work by taking the DISC inventory. Peggy Berry did a great job of interpreting the results and helping us understand their implications in our own work as well as in working with others. Your gifts to the Eliza Broadus Offering helped to make this annual retreat for our state missionaries possible. Many of them are volunteer missionaries with limited resources, This retreat is a particularly special time to be renewed.

After that experience last Wednesday and Thursday, I helped Shelby Christians United Against Drugs (who also helped start Celebrate Recovery in Shelbyville) with their “It’s Worth It” Recovery Month Celebration on Friday evening. Most participants were from the Drug Court and they heard a Christian witness and were encouraged to continue their walk of sobriety. In the midst of the PowerPoint slides we prepared was one that says “You Are Worth It” and included 1 Corinthians 6:20: “For you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

From there, I headed to Barbourville to spend the night, then on to Wallins to lead a WMU training conference for Upper Cumberland Association on Saturday. This is not a large association, yet 15 ladies from seven churches came to their Baptist camp and stayed from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. to learn about WMU. While a few of the churches had WMU organizations, several did not. Those ladies explained during our introductions that they came because they wanted to learn about WMU and get missions started in their churches. It was a great time of sharing and the ladies left excited. I am grateful for Bill Wallace, Director of Missions, who helped get things organized and enlisted men to cook breakfast and lunch for the ladies. And I appreciate the Eliza Broadus Offering for helping Kentucky WMU provide missions education training and resources.

Then on Sunday, a WMU leader sent me this note: “Today we celebrated the baptism of two ladies who recently accepted Christ. Before the baptism they were waiting ‘in the wing,’ so to speak, while I showed the EBO emphasis video. I had chosen the ‘In Deep’ video because of our baptisms. While they were listening, one of the ladies started crying and told Bro. Steve that she had met B.J. Bradley while in jail in 2009. He has witnessed to her and gave her a Bible what she still has. She said that he planted the seed that led to her decision a few weeks ago when she gave her life to Christ. I had no idea about this and neither did Steve. How cool is that? God is so good.”

So, when connections are made between missionaries and resources to help them, between people in churches who want to be a part of missions and an organization committed to challenging Christians believers to understand and be radically involved in the mission of God, or between a new believer and the Eliza Broadus Offering, how cool is that? I think it’s pretty neat!